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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says ‘it would be nice to have a team in Vancouver’

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is not shy about sharing his thoughts on the league at large.

Where his predecessor, David Stern, could sometimes be seen as inscrutable and authoritarian, Silver is a “player’s commissioner,” in which he has empowered his players to take the reins from ownership.

Adam Silver was also recently quoted in a piece from The Daily Hive proclaiming that “it would be nice to have a team in Vancouver.”

Of course, the Memphis Grizzliesstarted life as the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1995-96 season, and stayed in Canada’s eighth-most populous city until 2001, when the team relocated to Memphis.

“In retrospect, I wish we had a team in Vancouver right now. I think Canada could handle two NBA teams,” said Silver. “I share David’s sentiment that we do have regret. I think we were a bit ahead of our time. There was a moment in the league where prospects seemed down in terms of the team. Attendance was down, ratings were down. I understood from an economic standpoint why the then-team owner (Michael Heisley) wanted to move the team.”

When it comes to expansion in the NBA, it is always about timing. At this juncture, it seems that expansion is not on the immediate horizon as Silver’s comment express:

“Unfortunately we’re not in expansion mode right now, but it would be nice to have a team in Vancouver,” Silver says. “It’s a great market, I have some in-laws that live in Vancouver. I get there, it’s a beautiful city.”

Who knows what the future may bring, but the prospect of an NBA team returning to Vancouver might be in the cards at a much later point in time.